NHRC takes bank to task for harassment of girl over edu loan

National Human Rights Commission today said it has issued a show cause notice to the Central Bank of India asking why monetary relief should not be recommended to a girl who faced harassment from it over education loan despite making no default.
The notice was issued to the Chairman of Central Bank of India asking him why a relief amount of Rs one lakh should not be recommended to the girl who had taken Rs two lakh education loan and faced insult and harassment from it, NHRC said in a press release.
Noting that the beneficiary was not a defaulter, NHRC said the Manjoor Branch of the bank in Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu displayed photographs of the girl and her father on its notice board captioning them "wrongly as "missing" and "defaulters".

Threatening telephonic calls were also made to her ailing father who allegedly died due to shock after such calls from the bank, it said.
"The Commission's show cause notice follows the admittance of error by the bank. The bank has been given six weeks' time to respond," NHRC said.
In a report to the Commission, the bank said "due to erroneous data entry" the victim's loan account was wrongly classified as Non-Performing Asset."

NHRC said: "it was also found that the publication of photographs was against the advice of Union Ministry of Finance to banks that names and photographs of students, who are unable to repay education loan or during delay in repayment should not be published."

Justice D Murugesan, Member, NHRC, observed that the display of photographs was a violation of the constitutional right to live with dignity and human rights principles.
The victim had taken an education loan for Rs two lakh from the Central Bank of India to pursue her bachelors in engineering (B.E) degree.
She completed her degree in 2013 and paid half of the loan amount in the first month after the moratorium period.
The Commission took cognisance of the matter on the basis of a complaint in 2015 and had called for reports from the authorities concerned.